Cherry Smyth’s ‘Famished’ – a collection of poems focused on the famine – was performed at Kilkenny Arts Festival last week, with singer Lauren Kinsella and composer Ed Bennett. Toner Quinn reviews.

Famished, a recent collection of poetry by Cherry Smyth, is a deep road into the Irish famine. Her poems may begin with the 1840s but they travel right up to contemporary politics. Alongside her own writing, she quotes from political commentators down the decades. The poem ‘The Cassock, Each and Every Townland’ is accompanied by a quote from the Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle writing around the time of the famine: ‘Ireland is like a half-starved rat that crosses the path of an elephant. What must the elephant do? Squelch it – by heavens – squelch it.’
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Kilkenny Arts Festival presented the Irish premiere of Ed Bennett’s ‘Song of the Books’ last week, performed by Kate Ellis and Crash Ensemble. Toner Quinn reviews.

Composer Ed Bennett’s new work Song of the Books, which was given its Irish premiere at the Kilkenny Arts festival in Rothe House (16 August), has its origins in a request from the cellist Kate Ellis for a solo piece. That didn’t happen, but she is at the centre of this twenty-minute work for cello, ensemble and electronics, performed with Crash Ensemble.
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The achievements of Ireland’s composers abroad are not getting enough attention at home.

You would not know it from the vibrant music scene that we have today, but Ireland’s relationship with certain types of music has often been complicated, tormented even.
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Irish National Opera gave the world premiere of ‘Least Like the Other: Searching for Rosemary Kennedy’ in Galway this week, a work by composer Brian Irvine and director Netia Jones that tells the story of JFK’s sister. Toner Quinn reviews.

Brian Irvine’s new opera Least Like the Other, which was given its world premiere at the Galway International Arts Festival on 15 July, tells the story of Rosemary Kennedy (1918–2005), the sister of US president John F. Kennedy. 
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Luminosa string orchestra recently held its inaugural concerts in Galway, the first focussing on work by female composers and the second on the theme of landscape and music. Toner Quinn reviews.

Launched last November, Galway’s new orchestra Luminosa held its first two concerts in April and June of this year. The group is the initiative of Lucy Hayward and it draws on the musical strengths of the west: the four members of ConTempo Quartet are all section principals, and Paul Ezergailis, who is co-principal of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, is Concertmaster. The ranks of each section are filled by musicians who perform with national and international orchestras but are based in or near Galway.

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There was an irony in the fact that Other Voices was in Belfast this week. If you tune into debates in Britain at the moment, voices from Northern Ireland really are the ‘other voices’. Their experiences are hardly considered in the discussions about the border, Brexit or the Tory leadership. But the North has a lot to say.
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It takes a long time to get to Sherkin Island, through the bends of West Cork, down through Dunmanway and Skibbereen, the ferry from Baltimore, then a trip on the back of a golf-buggy up to the North Shore stage and camp site. One can only guess what is involved in organising the Open Ear festival on this small island, but the unlikeliness of it all is part of the attraction – we are there to escape. 

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